Mr. Ahmmed Zulfiqar Rahaman is working as an Associate Specialist in the Climate Change and Disaster Management Division of the Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS). Mr. Rahaman has over 10 years of experience in the field of water resources engineering, climate change, disaster risk reduction, climate modeling (downscaling), hydrologic and hydro-dynamic modeling, flood risk management, environmental impact assessment, environmental auditing, eco-engineering & low impact development measures, sustainable & water sensitive urban development, climate change risk, vulnerabilities and impact assessment, adaptation and mitigation planning, capacity development, development planning, SDGs & geo-spatial planning. Till date, he has been engaged in more than 50 projects to give his expert input either fully or partially at home and abroad. He was simultaneously involved in numerous studies in order to provide climate, flood & drought modeling services, engineering solutions, adaptation and mitigation measures for achieving sustainable development & climate resilience. He showed his excellent skills as an International Team Leader for stormwater modeling, feasibility study, and preparing stormwater management plan integrating low impact development (LID) measures for Thimphu City of Bhutan. Additionally, he worked for developing environment friendly & climate resilient flood risk management measures for Paro watershed and southern Bhutan.
He developed Statistical Downscaling Model for climate scenario generation (temperature and precipitation projections) covering whole Bangladesh for CMIP5 datasets. He was involved in flood hydrology study for Dhaka city (western part), watershed modeling and future water availability assessment for GBM basins applying hydrodynamic and hydrological models. He was actively engaged in assessment of the river flood, coastal floods, flash floods & drought risks under different studies. He was engaged in multiple urban drainage and flood modeling using SWMM and SOBEK. As part of Ashuganj-Palash irrigation project feasibility study, he assessed the irrigation water requirements using CropWAT. Overall, he has extensive experiences in using different mathematical modeling tools for watershed, floods and flow modeling i.e. SOBEK, HEC-RAS 1D-2D, HEC-HMS, CCHE2D, Delft3D, SWAT, SWMM, SDSM, ModFlow, DSSAT and ArcGIS for impact assessment studies under changing climate condition. He has experiences to transform this modeling outcome into solutions followed by developing both structural and non-structural solutions, where environment friendly green infrastructures & climate resilient design has been integrated.
His another key specialty is assessing the climate change risks and vulnerabilities applying both scientific and participatory approach following IPCC and UNSFDRR frameworks. He has done the CRVA exercise for water resources, agriculture, fisheries & aquaculture, cities, infrastructures, communities & ecosystem. He conducted hydrological modelling for climate change impact assessment on water availability, irrigation canal modeling and estimated crop water requirement under climate change scenarios. He contributed to develop a generic water valuation framework for estimating shadow water price of different sectors, develop climate resilient road design guidelines, assess city level climate resilient infrastructures need, analyse participatory scenario development for prioritizing community based adaptation in haor areas and formulate climate resilient WASH interventions. He has experiences on formulating watershed management measures, adaptation measures and DRR measures for enhancing climate resilience, livelihoods improvement and conservation of ecosystem. He was involved in environmental auditing for haor ecosystem, e-flow & strategic environmental assessment, adaptive pathway development using Adaptation Delta Management (ADM) principle. In all technical assessment, he frequently applied his special geo-spatial analysis skill to process GIS and remote sensing data, applying different geo-spatial techniques such as Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), geo-spatial aggregation for risk mapping etc.
Throughout his career, he developed his expertise on translating action oriented knowledge into policy actions, with active involvement in formulating vision, goal and strategies for Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100. He is one of the lead contributors of the recently approved National Adaptation Plan of Bangladesh (2023-2050) & updated Nationally Determined Contributions. Furthermore, he has experiences in preparation of climate adaptation & mitigation strategies and options, prioritization, implementation, monitoring evaluation and learning (MEAL) mechanism for tracking adaptation & mitigation progress. He was also fully engaged in preparing the Sector Action Plan on Environment and Climate Change, Transformative Capacity Development Plan and Knowledge Management Plan for Climate Change Adaptation and Community Climate Resilience Plan for Fisheries and Aquaculture. He provided his input for developing the outline and conceptual architecture of the Disaster Risk Information Portal (DRIP) for the Planning Commission.
Apart from technical inputs and policy studies, he also facilitated and co-facilitated multiple training initiatives as resources person, which focused on integrated water resources management, integration of climate change adaptation into national development planning process, climate resilient road infrastructures development and ESIA, climate science, impact and adaptation, and adaptive delta management. He customized the modules of these trainings. The training participants were mostly government officials & professionals. Additionally, he was engaged in developing full technical and financial proposals for multi opportunities, preparing presentations on contemporary topics, attending meetings, consultation workshops or seminars and maintaining business communication and liaison with existing and potential clients.
In his career, Mr. Rahaman worked with various national and international organizations, development partners, research institutes, NGOs and INGOs like BWDB, DoE, LGED, RHD, JRC, DBHWD, WARPO, Planning Commission, DAE, RAJUK, BCCT, PKSF, FAO, UNDP, GIZ, World Bank, ADB, IMC Worldwide, ICIMOD, IWMI, CCAFS-CGIAR, Reliance India, Twynstra Gudde Adviseurs, Deltares, IHE, Wageningen University, Royal Government of Bhutan etc. He has achieved several training and certifications on Natural Resources Management, Watershed and Mathematical Modeling, Business Communication, Leadership and Project Management.
